Khronos Releases OpenCL Spec

kpesler writes "Today, the Khronos Group released the OpenCL API specification (which we discussed earlier this year). It provides an open API for executing general-purpose code kernels on GPUs — so-called GPGPU functionality. Initially bolstered by Apple, the API garnered the support of major players including NVIDIA, AMD/ATI, and Intel. Motivated by inclusion in OS X Snow Leopard, the spec was completed in record time — about half a year from the formation of the group to the ratified spec."

Comments

what does it DO?

[Bizzeh]

is this simply a spec that people expect ati and nvidia to conform to? or is this another api outside of CUDA and CAL, that wraps the two up so that a single api can execute code on all GPGPU's?

Re:what does it DO?

[moogord]

It has applications further than that, the SIMD architecture of gpus makes them almost perfect as a hugely powerful non general purpose processor. Do you want to use this to handle AI? no. do you want to use this to enable millions of crates to go flying every which way when you fire a rocket? yes. Its essentially what glsl is to Nvidia's Cg, but instead of cg its an open (that's the important thing) CUDA replacement.